Trivia Night!!

Last night was the annual trivia night at my mom's (and mine now) work. She, among others, throws a trivia night each year to benefit the military-veteran wheelchair athletes to compete in national competitions. My mom does a fabulous job each year organizing the event. They put on such a fun night each year... it's truly awesome. This is the seventh year (right, mom??) it's taken place and I've been to each and every one. It's just more fun than I can even describe.

We reconnected the winning team from last year with one amazing addition... we had Me, Chad, my Dad, my step-mom Janet, brother Keith, his girlfriend Sarah, step-sister Rachel, and our friend Michelle. And drum-roll please.... we won again!!!!! Can you believe that? This team is pretty solid, but it also helps that Keith is so darn smart. We had a lot of fun though... and everyone pulled our weight. (and Rachel, Keith should have totally listened to you on that Amelia Earhart one!!)

We had a ton of food and a ton of fun (I think I already said that) and they raised $9918!! Which is super!!

I cannot wait for next year... and I really think we need to pull the team together for more trivia nights... you know make the rounds and earn a living... ok maybe not earn a living, but have fun on Saturday nights... whadda say??

Tagged

I just completed tagging all of my blog entries... this should be able to let you look at my blog in categories... like if you want to see all the NFL picks together. I still think I may need to make some adjustments to my blog format... but either way it's taken me a couple of week on and off to finish it and I wanted to let yall know.

UPDATE:
I changed the background of my blog... let me know if it's hard to read and I'll change it... it's very possible that I'll change it again soon.

Weekend in Review

I've been lucky to have a random four day weekend. What I wouldn't give for more of these kind of weekends!!

Friday was a day filled of doctor's appointments... for Chad. (oh how I love when it's not me!!) He met with a new primary care doc who practices in the same office as my doctor. I was hoping that his doctor would make him get a blood test and a tetanus shot... but he didn't Chad is perfectly healthy... but now he has a place to call if (and let's face it when) he gets sick. After that (we were in and out in 30ish minutes) we had breakfast at South City Diner. Their french toast is to die for!!

On a side note: My mom loves this place... it use to be her friend from high school family's bakery.

Then we headed over to Barnes for Chad to get an MRI and have a follow up appointment with his neurosurgeon. We didn't actually meet with the neurosurgeon (he was in the OR capping an aneurysm) however he was able to look at Chad's MRI and everything looked great. No swelling or anything... so he'll have to come back for another MRI in 6 months or a year... yay for good news!!

On Saturday we had lunch at Applebee's... Chad's very generous grandparents gave us a gift card for Valentine's Day. It was a gorgeous day. We decided to go bowling just the two of us. It was a heck of a lot of fun. We bowled 3 games together (I kept getting worse and worse) and then Chad bowled one by himself. My arm is all sore now two days later... although I would love to go bowling more often, or join a couples bowling league or something, that would be fun. We finished off the evening by driving around with the windows down...

Sunday we had lunch with Chad's grandparents at 54 Street Bar and Grill. I've been wanting to try this place for awhile, so it was great to finally be able to go. The menu is huuge!! I was in a cheeseburger kind of mood so I got a bacon cheeseburger and fries with a cup of their baked potato soup. It was pretty good. I want to go back and try new things... and they seem to have great happy hour specials as well... so we'll have to hit that up soon.

After lunch we decided to drive around a bit. It wasn't as pretty of a day as Saturday but Chad and I enjoy driving around sometimes. That's when it happened... Chad's truck would no longer accelerate... so he pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the car. And then he couldn't get it started again... we ended up having to call AAA to get it towed... luckily it seems like Chad's truck is still under warranty. We got it towed to the dealership and my awesome mom brought us back home. (update... it was Chad's fuel pump which is covered under warranty and will only cost us $100... thank the lord)

Today was my AWS day... so I mostly did laundry and started to clean up the guest bedroom... I went through the clothes in that closet and sorted out the clothes that don't fit me anymore.

Overall a pretty great weekend.

Last week I missed...

some notable anniversaries last week.

Last Tuesday/Wednesday (depending if you go by date or by the day after President's Day) I've been with my current job for a year... that means only one more year until I am no longer a federal career intern, which probably doesn't mean much to any of you... but it's a bigger thing for me.

Also last Tuesday I believe (Chad correct me if I'm wrong) we have officially been living in this house for 3 years. Can you believe it's been that long? In some ways we've made lots of updates, in others there's so much more we need to do. This is a great house... one we could live in for many many more years to come. Even raise a family in... if we ever decide to do so.

Olympics

I am addicted to the Olympics. I get so flipping excited every two years for the event. I'll watch anything... it's all so exciting. The best athletes in the world competing against one another for the most cherished prize of all... an Olympic gold medal. I'll watch sports I never see I'll learn names I've never heard and I'll learn some of the ends and outs of sports we rarely get a chance to see.

Did you see that short track speed skating race on Saturday night where the Koreans were going to go one, two, three and the second and third took each other out and the Americans won the silver and bronze?

Or the women's mogals with the American beating out the Canadian in the last run?

Or the Chinese pair figure skaters finally winning their gold?

Or the first Canadian guy winning the country's first gold medal on their home soil?

Or the empressive finish to the men's nordic combined?

Or the close finish on the men's snow-cross?

And it's only day 5... we still have over a week left!!!! SO. FLIPPING. EXCITING!!!

Valentine's Day

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day everyone.

Chad and I spent our Valentine's Day just like we have for the previous two Valentine's days. We ordered our traditional heart shaped pizza from Imo's and just hung out together. I enjoy that we don't go all out and buy each other gifts just do our special thing. (Although I hate to say this but Imo's let us down this year... instead of taking a medium size pizza dough and shaping it into a heart like they have done in years past, they took a circle pizza and cut it into a heart... and thus we missed out on some pizza... boo Imo's)

I'm going to take this time to brag on Chad a bit... Chad is an amazing husband... here's just a five of the sweet things he does for me.

1. He makes awesome dinners... he loves doing the cooking and he's really good at it and becoming better each time. I love that he'll make me food even if that's just heating something up for me.
2. He cleans. While we can both be better at this he doesn't mind helping cleaning. Especially he'll clean the dishes... which I hate.
   
3. He fixes and builds things.
4. He'll watch the Bachelor with me just so we can spend time together.
5. He listens to my stories that can be sorta long with no real pay-off in the end... he'll also listen to me repeat stories or questions or problems... and that I appreciate more than he'll ever know.

Chad... I love you very much and I'm very lucky to have found you (or you to have found me)

Coin Collection

We keep an empty water jug in our room to collect all of our change. We bought the jug when we first moved into the house about 3 years ago (saving that for another post)... about a week ago Chad purchased a coin counting jar...
Chad decided he wanted to figure out how much change we have thus far... here's the jug...
Any guesses on how much is in there... there's about 3 inches of coins in there... take a second... make a guess in your head...

Got your guess?

Alright... here we are separating out the coins...


Ready to hear how much we had? I was seriously amazed...

We have $327... can you believe it?!? We'll be continuing to save our change!!

2/25

I have finished my second book of the year...

I was finishing up the last book while on my San Diego trip. So I went into the shop at the airport and needed a new book... and picked up this beauty. I enjoyed the book... it was very random (like me) but also crass (not me)... it's just the best way to describe the book. It's amazing how she writes... just so blunt and out there (I'm doing a great job of describing it huh??) A girl on the plane told me she laughed out loud with this book... while I didn't have the out loud laughing it did keep my interest. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, just b/c I don't think everyone would like it... but I'm guessing a lot of my friends would indeed enjoy it... and mom, you'd probably enjoy it as well... although people reading this blog who have read the book might find it weird that I'd be recommending it to my mom... haha. I'll leave it with a few random topics... sleeping with a red head, going to England, her first DWI, and regifting a present.

Super Bowl Weekend

Wasn't that an exciting football game yesterday?? I love exciting games!!

This will be a random post (go figure, should I even be mentioning that anymore??) with bullets... I'm not sure if yall like the bullets or not, so you gotta let me know if you don't, b/c I do use them as it makes it easier to write... anywho... on to the bullets!!

• Nothing eventful happened on Friday... I always enjoy having a lazy Friday... and wind down from a work week... I made it through my first full 5 day work week in quite awhile. (I know... cry me a river, haha)
• Saturday Chad and I started to clean the house... I hadn't realized how dirty our sink got... but elbow grease, bar-keepers friend and magic eraser got that baby clean again.
• Saturday night I accompanied my mom to a trivia night for the Afton 2010 seniors. We were joined by my mom's friends. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoy trivia nights. It was also a lot of fun to hang out with my mom... I really enjoy spending time with her.
• Onto Super Bowl Sunday!! We had a a party again this year. Before everyone I knew I needed to clean the bathroom... I put in some more elbow grease and cleaned parts of that toilet that may have never been cleaned... (gross I know) I wanted to take before and after pics... but that would mean I'd have to admit to the fact of just how messy the toilet was... and yall just don't need to see that!!
  
• There was lot of yummy food and great friends. Carrie, her friend Jen, Sam, Meg, Rachel, Scott, Andy, Ashley and little Abby. Everyone brought food and it was so yummy... I ate SO. MUCH. FOOD. I was rooting on the Colts, but was thinking the Saints would win... and whadya know?? That's what happened.
• We all put in a dollar and picked a name for MVP... I didn't win, but I also bet on the coin flip and won that one... so that was my dollar I put in for the player.
• I'm not sure if I want to go into the details of this story or not yet, but all I want to say is it's a small, small world...
• Today was my AWS day (boo-yeah) and Chad was... umm... sick... so we spent the day together which was a lot of fun!

Something I NEVER do...

I never ever eat left overs... the only exception to this is chili (which gets better the second day) and pizza. I don't know what it is, but I just don't like it... even if the food was amazing the first time around I don't want it the second time around. I think so of it has to do with how it looks cold... or maybe it's getting into a container... or maybe it's that it never tastes quite the same... or maybe it's that it doesn't heat up well... or maybe it's I don't want to eat the same meal twice in a row... whatever the reason I do not will not eat left overs.

I wish I was the type that would... this would be very handy for lunch the next day or dinner the next night... but I just don't like to do it... here's another goofy thing... if someone else will prepare the left overs for me I am more apt to eat them... but I'm usually not happy about it.

(I'm a strange person when it comes to food... I have some really weird habits)

Anyway... last night I did the unthinkable... I ate left overs... and not only that I fixed them myself... I got them out of the container (which came out in the shape of the container... gross) and heated them up... and ate them... it wasn't as good the second time around - kinda bland... but I did it...

What were these leftovers you may ask... Chad had made stir fry (his stir fry is so. freaking. delicious.) and I ate what we had left over from Monday...

Aren't y'all proud??

Random Tuesday

I haven't posted for awhile... I'm awful... just not a lot out of the ordinary has been happening... but here's an update on some of the stranger things...

• Last Friday I did something pretty stupid... I was scooting my desk chair in and I guess I kinda slipped or something b/c next thing I know I hit my head on my desk... the very tip top of my head... it was a pretty hard hit too... I kept working... I went to lunch with my mom and that's where I first started to notice that I wasn't feeling normal... I wasn't able to concentrate on what she was saying very well... and when I got back to my desk after work I REALLY started to feel it... All I really knew was I wasn't feeling normal. After the urging from Chad I decided to go home and rest... I really think that I gave myself a concussion... Who does that?!? Gives them self a concussion?? blah... I'm fine now but didn't really expect that to happen.
• A couple of weeks ago I went to San Diego for my first larger conference. There was about 350 participants. Everything went smoothly which is great and I'm proud that I was able to do my part to make this conference awesome.
• The only weird thing about this was the weather in San Diego. "Storm Watch 2010" "Storm of the Century" It rained the entire time I was there... couldn't freaking believe it. What's normal in San Diego is temperatures between 60-80 degrees... but not while we're there. When talking to locals they informed something along these lines... having lived here my entire life I've never seen the weather do this... it's never rained for three days straight. Coming from the Midwest this storm was nothing to write home about... rain, wind, some hail in places... nothing exciting... but the way the news reported it you'd thing a monsoon was hitting Southern California... There was flooding (the golf course next to the hotel was covered in water) and there were mudslides in places... but like I said... nothing too out of the ordinary from what I've seen. Not to mention people in their winter coats with weather in the 50s... I think those people might die back in St. Louis.
• We're having a Super Bowl party on Sunday... I'm excited... what's even better is I'm off on Monday... I'll be cheering for the Colts... hopefully it's a good game.
• My summer is looking pretty busy at work... and we're suppose to do 2 family vacations... I'm just not sure how that's all going to work... I would LOVE to go on the family vacations and I really hope it all works out... but I'm just not sure...
• I'm ready for baseball season...
• We're having a dessert contest at work... I want to make something, but I just don't know exactly what to make... I need to figure this out ASAP.
• We have to do these silly training sessions... and today's is going to be awful... it's partially my fault b/c I feel like I am not utilizing Outlook and Outlook Calendar to my fullest capabilities... so they found someone to give this training and I feel like it's going to be worthless... maybe I'll be wrong, but I'm willing to bet I'm not... blag

I'll post again soon...